


Name of a Friend

by Aly_H



Category: Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Gen, Naming the dog, Reflection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2017-12-17
Packaged: 2019-02-16 07:03:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13048959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aly_H/pseuds/Aly_H
Summary: A set of short scenes regarding how and why my various Wardens named their Dog what they did.





	1. The Mage's Protector

Perhaps Loopy wasn’t the most fitting name for the muscled war dog whose block of a head was resting on his lap while the mage’s fingers stroked across the space between his ears. It’d been an impulse thing kneeling there in the dirt.

_Loopy_ was the name of the dog he’d talked about wanting if he ever left the Circle. He’d imagined a lot of different dogs carrying the name – little Orlesian lapdogs that wouldn’t mind Tower life to long legged hunters with gleaming coats. Not a Mabari though.

Mabari were intelligent and he was Ferelden, he knew that the dogs _picked_ their masters. He’d not thought any creature would want to get itself stuck with a mage. They’d abandoned the Tevinters, after all.

The imaginary dog had been a child’s dream – something he spoke to Jowan and Solona about with a sheepish smile and listened to their wishes in return. Something imagined to help keep the nightmares of the Fade at bay.

This dog wasn’t imagined though…and despite Loghain, and the Blight, and the way certain Antivans made him feel like the ground was going to drop from under him he felt _safe_ with his warmth and his weight.


	2. The Dalish's Dog

The Mabari wasn’t his first dog despite what Alistair seemed to believe.

Fen’s first dog had been a lithe-muscled mutt with a long coat and quick feet. He’d stolen her from some _shemlen_ children he’d found throwing rocks at her while she was tied up. The Keeper had been furious he let himself be seen – that he’d left the alone camp at all, really – but she’d healed the dog’s injuries and let him keep the creature.

She’d been killed by a _shem_ poacher a few summers before – he’d not seen the man who had thought to kill an elf while he was out hunting but Telahn had and the bolt that would have killed him instead took his dog. His arrow had killed the human, but the damage was done.

He’d helped the Kennel Master because he liked dogs, because anyone who worried about their dogs that much couldn’t be all bad even if they were a _shem_. He didn’t have a name for this one though, hadn’t known what to call the creature who seemed content to hunt Darkspawn at his side as Telahn had once chased rabbits and deer with him.

It had been Alistair’s idea to name the dog Barkspawn – which _was_ considerably better than continuing to call him ‘Dog’. And if the Mabari had no protests to a name like that then who was he to complain?


	3. Her Knight

She wasn’t supposed to have bonded to the Mabari pup but when it became clear the dog would listen to no one else and had chosen who he wanted to imprint on the Teyrn of Highever had simply laughed and said that the dog would grow into a fine protector for his Pup.

“He’s my knight,” Eveline had decided, arms wrapped around the puppy. “His name is Calenhad.”

Fergus had thought it was funny she’d call the dog after their country’s first king. Her mother had been a little less amused – it wasn’t an appropriate name for a dog, even for a Mabari whose lineage was older than the Couslands’.

‘Cal’ had been a compromise – and the memory of it made her smile sadly as she hugged the dog closer. Her family was gone, all she had left was her knight.


	4. Partner in Crime

Natia Brosca had never had a dog before. Never had a pet before. Unless you counted the one time she’d brought a nug home but that had lasted all of three hours before the creature had been dinner.

She’d never wanted a dog, even if the idea of getting to the surface had been appealing. She was already casteless it wasn’t as if becoming a Surfacer would make things worse, but her sister hadn’t wanted to go and, besides, moving took money.

It’d been weird to think of having a pet until she remembered the dog fighting. A bronto with pointy teeth that curled up next to her at night and helped keep the chilly surface temperature at bay? Yes, please.

It wasn’t meant to be a name – she’d called the dog ‘Salroka’ the way she’d use it for a person because the way those eyes had watched her made her feel like he could understand. That he _was_ a friend, and for once she hadn’t meant it with dripping sarcasm.

It wasn’t a name – she’d wanted to call the dog ‘Urtok’. But Salroka had stuck anyways and so it had become the name of her newest partner. Mabari were smart – maybe she could teach him how to pickpocket?


End file.
